Thursday, June 28, 2007

Dom Lupo... and 500 Posts!

This is the 500th post on the Today's Inspiration blog. And I can't think of anyone more appropriate to be showcasing on this hallmark occasion than Dom Lupo. For every Norman Rockwell or J.C Leyendecker or Al Parker or Bernie Fuchs, there are a hundred Dom Lupos. These worthy craftsmen, who spent long, hard-working careers marrying creativity to utility, deserve some recognition and praise. It's these artists from whom I draw much inspiration every day in my own efforts at the board -- and it's my goal to make sure they are not forgotten.

When I began Today's Inspiration as a daily mailing list for a dozen friends some six or seven years ago, it was because I had in my possession a huge collection of clipped magazine pages, many of them illustrated with exceptional skill by dozens and dozens of artists I had never heard of.

At that point in time I had been a professional illustrator for more than a decade. How could I be so entirely unfamiliar with a generation of my peers - many of them still alive, some of them still working - who had so thoroughly dominated the printed pages of American mass media for nearly half a century? Illustration, which had once been such an integral part of mainstream media and popular culture, had quiety faded away, leaving almost no record of its passing.

Over time the TI list grew by word of mouth and with the help of better informed and enthusiastic list members my education into the history of illustration in the mid-20th century took off. Starting this blog with the encouragement of my pal, Ward Jenkins, has been an incredibly gratifying experience. Through Today's Inspiration, I've had the pleasure and privilege of meeting many kindered spirits -- other fans of the artform, friends and family members of great illustrators past and present and, most rewarding of all, some of the very artists I've showcased here.

To all of you who are on the TI mailing list - and to the many more who make this blog a part of their day - thanks for joining me on this journey of discovery and celebration... I hope you'll still be with me for the next 500 posts!

2 comments:

Thanks for continuing to expose me to illustration from this period. The instructors at my school fail to highlight artists from this period enough...which is probably a good thing in a selfish way. It's helped me immerserably. I've even discoverd how these artists worked with a few old books left in library circulation.